FARTHER INDIA. 



933 



junks, and European and American ships. Sugar, pepper, gums, and rice, are the principal 

 articles of export ; European and Chinese manufactures are imported. According to Mr. 

 Malcom, the commerce of Bankok is greater than that of any other city not inhabited by 

 whites, with the exception of Canton. The Malay States are in part tributary to Siani, in part 

 only nominally subject, and in part, both in fact and name, entirely independent. Keda, Li- 

 gore, Patani, Salengore, Pahang, &c. are among these States. The inhabitants are Malays, 

 who are nowhere else found on the continent, but are very widely difliised over the great 

 islands, and will be elsewhere described. 



6. Empire of Jlnnam. Annam is bounded north by China ; south and east by the Chinese 

 Sea, and west by the Siamese State. It comprises the kingdoms of Cochin China, Tonquin, 

 Tsiampa, Cambodia, part of Laos, &c. Area, 280,000 square miles ; population, 12,000,000. 



Hue is remarkable for its vast military works, its granaries, barracks, magazines, and arsenals ; 

 the ditch which surrounds the place is eight miles in circuit, and 100 feet broad, and the walls 

 are 60 feet high. The palace of the emperor is also an edifice of great size and strength, and 

 there are here a large cannon foundery and a dock-yard. Population, 100,000. Kesho^ for- 

 merly capital of the kingdom of Tonquin, is now much reduced in importance. Population, 

 40,000. Saigon^ capital of Cambodia, upon the Donnai, has 100,000 inhabitants. Its cita- 

 del is hardly inferior in strength and extent of its works to that of Hue, and there is here a 

 dock-yard, on an extensive scale, at which an American navigator a few years since saw 190 

 galleys, and two frigates built on the European model. The houses are mostly of wood, 

 thatched with rice straw or palm leaves, and without glass. 



The government of Annam, as well as that of Siam, is of tlie most despotic character, and 

 in both these Slates, as in the Birman empire, every male subject above 20 years of age, ex- 

 cepting the priests and public officers, is obliged to give every third year to the service of gov- 

 ernment, either as a soldier or a laborer. The inhabitants are short and squat, and have an ex- 

 pression of sprightliness, inteUigence, and good humor. Morals are in a low stale ; the women 

 are little better than mere slaves, being obliged to perform all the labor. Arts, manufactures, 

 and agriculture are in a backward condition and make no progress. The people are generally 

 poor, and live in miserable huts, with litde furniture. 



7. English Territories. The possessions of the East India Company in Farther India con- 

 sist of several detached territories ; the countries between Bengal and the Birman empire com- 

 prise Assam, Caslian, the country of the Garroios, Arracan, &c. ; on the east of the Saluen are 

 several provinces between the Birman empire, Siam, and the Sea of Bengal, including Tavoy, 

 Yeh, Martaban, and Tenasserine ; the isle of Pulo Penang, or Prince of Wales' Island, and 

 that of Sincapore, with a part of Malacca, also belong to the Company. Arracan is a large 

 town, built upon a spot overflowed by the river of the same name, and consisting chiefly of 

 bamboo huts. Its population is about 30,000. Amherst Town, founded in 1826, stands at the 

 mouth of the Saluen, and has about 10,000 inhabitants. Maulmuin, which was founded still 

 later, is the metropolis of British Birmah, the residence of the governor. The situation is 

 healthy, the commerce flourishing, and the population already numbers about 18,000 souls. 

 The Baptists have a missionary station and a press here. Georgetown, on the Prince of Wales' 

 Island, is also a flourishing town, with an increasing commerce. Population, 15,000. Malacca 

 was ceded to England by the Dutch, in 1825, but the rise of Sincapore and Geo]-getown, has 

 drawn away much of its trade. Here is an Anglo-Chinese college. Sincapore, founded by 

 the British in 1819, is already become a place of great commercial importance, and the great 

 mart of this part of the world. It has 30,000 inhabitants, of whom 10,000 are Malays, and 

 12,000 Chinese. 



8. Islands. The Andaman and J^icobar islands form a long chain of rocks and islets in the 

 Sea of Bengal, occupied by independent native tribes. The Andaman group consists of three 

 pxmcipal islands, and a great number of smaller ones, inhabited by a fierce and savage race of 

 blacks. The Nicobar group is composed of ten principal and numerous smaller isles, inhabited 

 by a gentle and peaceable people resembling the Malays. 



9. Religion. Buddhism is professed by the Birmans, the Arracanians, Peguans, Siamese, 

 Laotians, Cambodians, and by the lower classes in Cochin China and Tonquin. Some of the 

 eu .. ated classes in the latter countries adhere to the doctrines of Confucius. Bramanism has 

 sonii followers in Assam, Cashar, &c., and the Malays, who have settled on the coasts an. 

 Mahometans. Many barbarous tribes in the interior have no religious rites, or are attached to 

 the most absurd superstitions. Christianity has made some converts in the Birman empire ana 

 in Annam. 



